Final Report and Recommendations
Under the patronage of HH Shaikh Hamad bin isal Al- Khalifa, The Crown Prince and Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force, The Symposium on Wildlife Protection & Development in the GCC Region was held in Bahrain from 16-18 January 1995 at the Sheraton Hotel.

The Symposium was organized by the National Committee for Wildlife Protection (NCWP) in collaboration with GCC General Secretariat. The Symposium was attended by 120 participants from the region as well as five participants who represented the IUCN and the UNEP.

The Symposium was officially opened by HE Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, The Head of the Crown Prince Court and Chairman of the NCWP.

Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa then delivered the speech of NCWP. This was followed by speeches from Dr Fahmi Al Ali of GCC General Secretariat and Dr Ismail Al-Madani Chairman of the Symposium organizing committee.

Later Dr. Abdulaziz Abuzinada, the Secretary General of NCWCD of Saudi Arabia, briefed the participants on the experiences and efforts of NCWCD exerted in the field of wildlife.

The Symposium consisted of six sessions in which 50 papers were presented. The papers covered various important topics, e.g. features of natural habitat in the region, necessity for protection of biodiversity, scientific actions and efforts aiming to increase and reintroduce endangered species, e.g. the Arabian oryx and houbara bustard, establishment of protected areas and issuing legislation relating to wildlife protection as well as education and environmental awareness.

The participants exchanged views and concluded that the habitats and ecosystems in most of the GCC states are facing difficult pressures which may result in the extinction of some species and decline of natural habitats of economic environmental and scientific values. To minimize this phenomena and to increase the protection of biological heritage in the GCC states, the participants recommended the following:

I - National Level

1) Increase basic and applied scientific research in Universities and Research Institutions to achieve the following:

a) Identify the living components of different habitats.

b) Categorize the natural habitats according to their status.

c) Provide species reference collections and establish data base.

d) Include the wildlife topics in education curricula at different levels, when plans and strategies on eduction are formulated.

2) Take all necessary measures to evaluate and protect the natural reserves and considering the Saudi Arabian experience, the participants included:

a) Issue legislation to enforce the protection of wildlife and create an effective system for monitoring and implementation.

b) Support efforts aimed at increasing the endangered animal species in captivity.

c) Identify diseases which affect wild species with high environmental value and to find ways for treatment and prevention.

3) Take all necessary steps to verify the important international conventions relating to wildlife and in particular:

a) Bio-diversity

b) CITES

c) CMS

d) RAMSAR

The participants would appreciate if the Secretariat could organize a meeting with State Members for all those concerned in this field in order to speed up the ratification of above- mentioned conventions.

4) Establish education centres to prepare awareness programmes for the public, in particular for the younger generation, and concentrate mainly on native species like Arabian leopard, Arabian oryx and houbara bustard.

5) Invite societies and non-governmental organizations to participate in the activities of wildlife protection and development, particularly in the field of public awareness.

6) Involve the mass media in the campaign on topics related to protection of wildlife and development.

II - Regional Level

1) Establish a Gulf Committee to co-ordinate efforts among the GCC states in the field of wildlife protection and development in the region.

2) Establish a network to exchange information on wildlife in the region.

3) Take necessary steps to speed up the approval of the unified system for wildlife protection and development in the GCC states.

4) Take all necessary measures to control the introduction of exotic plants and animal species in the natural habitats of the region.

5) Provide a list of all rare and endangered plant and animal species.

6) Organize similar meetings once every two years.

III - International Level

1) The participants appreciated all the experiences of the international organizations in the field of wildlife protection and development and recommended that the GCC states utilize such experience and cooperate with these organizations, in particular the IUCN and UNEP.

2) Due to the importance of international meetings and conferences related to wildlife protection and development, the participants recommend the active involvement in such meetings by GCC states.

Professor Saeed Mohammed

Fossil Conference

Studies of fossils to be found in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, suggest that 6 million years ago, the Arabian peninsula acted as a land bridge between Africa and Asia, playing a key role in the evolution of the fauna of today, scientists now believe.

Meeting in Jebel Dhanna, west of Abu Dhabi, in early March for the first ever international conference on the Fossil Vertebrates of Arabia, scientists from Britain, Europe, and the United States, all specialists in palaeontology, evaluated the results of several years of work undertaken in a project jointly run by the Natural History Museum in London and Yale University.

The research project has produced extensive evidence of terrestrial mammals and other species, some of which are new to science, such as an early ancestor of the horse, named Hipparion abudhabiensis, and a new species and genus of gerbillids, Abudhabia baynunensis. Also found were remains of early ancestors of the elephant, hippopotamus, sabre-toothed cat and other mammals, as well as turtles and two species of birds, one probably a member of the egret family.

Sedimentological studies suggest that a great river once drained into the Arabian Gulf through western Abu Dhabi, with the fossil finds indicating the presence along its banks and the neighbouring flood plains of a varied fauna in a landscape that was probably fairly similar to today's east African savannahs.

The Miocene outcrops in which the fossils have been found stretch over an area of around 140 km along the Abu Dhabi coastline. Named the Baynunah Formation, after the area in which they are found, they contain the best collection of terrestrial fossils from the Late Miocene period so far discovered anywhere in Arabia.

Of particular importance is the suggestion that the Abu Dhabi area, and the rest of the peninsula, may have been used as a land bridge between Africa and Asia, perhaps crossing into Africa from the south-west of the peninsula before the gradual widening of Africa's great Rift Valley opened up the Red Sea at the Bab al mandeb.

The conference, inaugurated by the UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, was co-sponsored by the Ministry and by the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, which has been the major source of funds for the research study, with additional support from the Abu Dhabi National Hotels Company.

Peter Hellyer

Conference Report
Fragile Environments: People and Tourism

Agenda 21, the plan for action approved by the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, recognized that many of the world's environments are fragile, in terms not only of their ecology, but also the cultures of their inhabitants. Four of these fragile environments are mountains, arctic areas, deserts and savannah.

A conference held at the Royal Geographical Society, London on 28 September 1994, convened by Dr Martin Price (Environmental Change Unit, University of Oxford) and attended by speakers and delegates from governments, consultancies, non-governmental organizations (NGO's), and academia, considered how tourism may be integrated into the cultures and economies of people living in these four fragile environments.

The tourism industry's increasing commitment towards long-term perspectives to ensure the future of the environments and societies that are essential to the industry's future was underlined. Participants stressed the necessity of community-based regional planning and emphasized the importance of involving local communities in the assessment and minimization of problems relating to tourism as well as in the designation of national parks. The role of NGO's in the complex relationships of economic development, cultural change, tourism, and wildlife management was also outlined.

The papers delivered at this conference will be incorporated into a book to be published as a joint venture between the RGS and John Wiley, publishers.

Martin Price